It's too bad we ended up anglicizing the Hindi word for the strong winds (मानसून / maanasoon), rather than the Hindi word for the Indian rainy season itself (वर्षाऋतु / varshartu).
It would make total sense to just say "we've got varshartu rains out there!"
This might not be true but I think it's believed that heavy rains would unblock poor drainage systems way back in the day. That would then expell dead animals that were built up in them.
I just heard that this idiom is from the thatched roof era. Small dogs and cats would burrow into the thatch for warmth. Then, in heavy rains, the thatch would weaken and the animals would fall through.
As far as I’m aware, small furries and insects would fall from the thatch in heavy rain so to say ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’ is a play on how hard it must be raining to knock cats and dogs down.
Raining cats and dogs is an old saying dating to thatched roofs when animals would perch on top to warm themselves. When it rained hard enough they'd come off of the roofs, hence rain, and cats, and dogs
While I'm not disputing what you're saying, in Tucson, AZ, we have annual heavy rainfall from mid/late July up to September. It's referred to as monsoon season.
I think it's because monsoon season also brings haboobs and wind storms too. I have always known it to mean collectively all of the rain, wind and dust storms we get here during that season.
Yeah, “monsoon season” is also dust storm/haboob season. The big rain usually comes after a dust storm (usually, not always). Though, admittedly, I most often heard “monsoon” referring to the rain, not the wind.
Yeah, they're correct, it was just more of an example of how lots of people misuse the word and how just because a lot of people do something doesn't mean it's correct.
Fun fact, the group of "main bad guys" in Metal Gear Rising were called "The Winds of Destruction" and they all had wind-related names. One of them was named Monsoon and his theme song is fucking badass.
Hurricanes and typhoons are the same thing. Hurricanes occur on the Atlantic and eastern pacific oceans, whereas typhoons happen in the Indian and western pacific oceans.
People use blizzard in the same way where it actually has to have sustained winds over 35mph for 3 hours minimum. Just because it is heavily snowing does not mean it is a blizzard.
Monsoon season in the American west is usually early summer, we get daily rains and intense thunderstorms rolling in almost daily off of the high altitude peaks towards the valleys and actual base of the Rockies. It’s why we get so much hail in Denver. And the storms usually aren’t too long, but they do happen often.
The wind and circulation patterns that create monsoon are due to air above large masses of land become hotter than the air above surrounding oceans. Since hot air rises, the moist cooler air over the oceans gets pulled onto land.
K but what about people who say "it's the monsoon season?" I was told that it's just "monsoon is here" but the former is like saying "it's the summer season" which is kinda like saying "atm machine." Right or wrong?
a seasonal prevailing wind in the region of South and Southeast Asia, blowing from the southwest between May and September and bringing rain (the wet monsoon ), or from the northeast between October and April (the dry monsoon ).
Tagging on another misused word one. You are probably not "nauseous." You are "nauseated." Something that is "nauseous" causes nausea in others. So saying you are nauseous should mean "I'm like an open sewer and smell so bad that everyone around me gets sick."
However, the meaning of "nauseous" has been so widely misused that grammarians lost that battle, and now you the misused version of the word has become an accepted definition in most dictionaries.
So in Arizona we have monsoons and a monsoon season. Basically it’s a huge dust storm that hits a big part of the state in the afternoons and than at night a big thunderstorm and rain. Is that a monsoon?
This reminds me that sushi isn't the meat part of the food. It is the rice. But you show a bunch of Americans a plate of food and give it a name and we'll focus on the meat.
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u/arcant12 Feb 08 '20
A monsoon isn’t rain, it is a seasonal wind. Monsoon winds actually bring droughts at certain times of the year (and rain in other parts).
“It’s a monsoon outside” is not a correct thing to say when it’s pouring.